It’s a question that plagues every woman in the workplace: How do I balance accomplishing my career goals with nurturing my family? At the Women in Naturals education track and networking event at Natural Products Expo East, industry veterans and accomplished women are meeting to discuss their unique answers to the family/work conundrum.

The education session held yesterday, “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office,” featured New Hope Natural Media mavens, Jylle Ryan, group director of marketing and business intelligence, and Nancy Coulter-Parker, group director of retail media, as well as Nicole Dawes, cofounder and CEO of Late July Organic Snacks, and Renee Hastings, holistic health coach at Hastings Healthy Living. The panelists spoke about their personal struggles with balance and their experiences rising to the top of their games.

“A lot of the time we feel pushed into having to be curt,” Coulter-Parker said. She said women need to remember to “be authentic.”

Questions that were brought up during the session included “I’m a cryer, so how do I deal?” and “What tips do you have from the mistakes that you’ve made?”

Coulter-Parker said one of the valuable takeaways was to remember to self-preserve. “Don’t give everything away,” she said. “If we are constantly going full-out, we are no help to anyone else.”

Tomorrow’s networking event (5:30 p.m., Grand Ballroom Lobby, Boston Convention and Exhibition Center) will address similar questions from the crowd. This event is a unique opportunity for women to connect on a personal level and to learn trade the secrets to excelling in the natural products industry.